With a contraction of the lungs, An Jing exhaled a Sword of Blood Qi, a streak of Sword Light flashed by, adding a crack to the door.
As this congested injury Qi was expelled from his body, the Taibai Fiend Qi within him started to circulate and evolve smoothly, quickly reaching as many as thirty-nine strands—aside from the three strands representing An Jing’s life essence, the ’Lifebound Essence Qi’, the other thirty-six strands could be used at will!
At that moment, the Subdue Evil Sword Spirit also spoke with admiration, "Innate Dao material... An Jing, congratulations on grasping the true intent of Mystery Skill. From now on, the eighteen prohibitions of Spirit Awakening and Qi Refinement will be a smooth path for you!"
An Jing didn’t quite understand; to him, it just seemed like running the Mystery Skill step by step, Condensing Qi and Refining Fiend, and Melting Magic Prohibition that’s all... This ease already felt somewhat unreal to him, he hadn’t anticipated doing better than he had imagined.
"Of course," the Subdue Evil said as a matter of course, "You’ve completely understood the essence of Taibai Forbidden Seed and have begun to rebuild your foundation, attracting the favor of Great Dao Spiritual Light... Even with Heavenly Mandate upon you and Destiny’s protection, this is still an extraordinary accomplishment!"
In the eyes of the Sword Spirit, with the help of the Great Dao Spiritual Light, An Jing’s soul and spirit had refined a thread of Geng Metal True Fiend converted from the Taibai Forbidden Seed, a step that should only occur after the ninth and tenth prohibitions, when one begins to melt the Magic Prohibition into the soul.
Yet An Jing had comprehended this profound subtlety ahead of time, and henceforth, with each Condensing of Magic Prohibition, his soul and spirit’s strength would be enhanced, already stepping into the threshold of the Peak of Qi Refining for cultivators who were preparing to refine Divine Sense from Divine Intent to lay the foundation.
An Jing’s originally very solid soul and spirit would also become even more tenacious!
Although Subdue Evil knew early on that An Jing would face no obstacles at this stage, the smoothness of the process also brought an immense surprise to It.
"It feels like, aside from the Heavenly Mandate Feedback, this is also due to the reinforcement you’ve given me, Subdue Evil," An Jing said, having somewhat realized—while he indeed had talent, a true genius, he wasn’t monstrously talented to this extent.
Even with Heavenly Mandate’s blessing, it only played a part in inspiration, and without a solid enough foundation, it wouldn’t be achievable.
It was because Subdue Evil, the once Immortal Sword, resides within him, and with the reinforcement of Subdue Evil’s Dao Spirit and the Heavenly Profound True Talisman that he could freely command these evil Qi and Sword Qi, allowing his path of cultivation to be smooth and making rapid advancements in the Sword Immortal Method.
However, this was also the reward for risking his life in battle and overcoming numerous obstacles!
In other words, this was indeed the talent he deserved!
"The body... feels so light!"
At this moment, An Jing, experiencing the progress he had made, was also extremely surprised.
After Condensing the Third Prohibition, the body that had been getting heavier due to practicing Taibai Luminous Godly Ban now became much lighter—his weight didn’t decrease but his strength increased considerably.
With this greater strength, even performing Mysterious Steps became a lot easier—while not necessarily nimble, at least the speed was fast; strength was paramount.
Now, with Martial Arts Essence Qi surging like tides, An Jing’s speed of Taibai Fiend Qi recovery improved, almost matching an average Qi Refinement cultivator.
Previously, he needed to cultivate for four hours to recover a strand of Taibai Fiend Qi, but now, he could recover two in one hour.
Even if all thirty-six strands were used up, it would only take eighteen hours, that is, a day and a half, to recover.
In this way, in a safe environment, An Jing no longer needed to waste Jade Cutting Steel and the Five Metals—of course, with those, the recovery would be even faster.
In the aspect of Qi Refinement, he condensed a pair of Magic Prohibitions in both arms and legs, achieving a qualitative leap in pure strength.
At this point, An Jing, advancing equally in Martial Arts and Immortal Cultivation, now had no fear of the Inner Strength individuals from Embracing the Void realm, unless they had four or five Divine Abnormalities, he could fight and win against them confidently.
This level of power meant he could now walk sideways, so to speak, in Ming City which was currently without the back of its Martial Meridian Guardian Grandmaster.
The next step was to begin the preparation for external harvesting and internal refining, to condense the Divine Abnormality, and to officially advance to Inner Strength.
Lifting his head, An Jing looked toward the seam of the meditation room door; although it was still dim, there was already a sliver of light.
The night had passed, and it was the dawn of the following day.
An Jing, feeling refreshed and clear-headed, opened the door of the meditation room and walked out of the Youde Garden gates.
Along the way, all the servants and maids could see that his cultivation had made a breakthrough and congratulated him successively, while An Jing modestly waved in response.
Although he seemed somewhat arrogant, he also handed out quite a few copper coins, which delighted everyone, and they showered him with compliments and congratulations.
"Things have been a bit unsettled in the city lately, Xuan, you should be careful as well."
Walking back to the inn, the steward of Youde Garden had intended to send someone to escort An Jing, but An Jing declined.
As the guest had made up his mind, Steward Li naturally couldn’t say much more, but still gently reminded him: "There have been Heavenly Demons lurking around, and there’s been some movement from the Demon Sect in the mountains... Although the city itself is safe, one must be vigilant—who knows if the Demon Sect will take the opportunity to cause trouble?"
An Jing kept this in mind, though outwardly he appeared nonchalant.
The Guardian Grandmaster of Kanming City, known as ’Wei Yang Quan’, An Jing hadn’t reacted to the title before, but upon recalling and pondering lately, he had some vague suspicions.
The Grandmaster of the Demon Sect who had rushed to the depths of the Western Mountain at the first sign of trouble, inflicting heavy damage on the Evil Born Demon and forcing it to reveal its trump card, employed Martial Skills that seemed to be of Yang Attribute?
If not unexpected, Wei Yang Quan Shuzheng, as Instructor Li had said before his death, was a Demon Sect Grandmaster lurking within Da Chen!
With such an important frontier land being eroded by the Demon Sect, An Jing found it hard to judge Da Chen’s level of governance—knowing that after this Grandmaster of the Demon Sect left, Kanming City actually became more chaotic.
However, if one had to say, it was not surprising at all. The reason for the frequent unrest in the northwest borderlands was because this was the arena where Heaven’s Will Cult clashed with Da Chen, and since Shuzheng was both a Demon Sect Infiltrator and a Da Chen official, he could naturally suppress local families openly and eradicate threats in secret using the methods of the Demon Sect.
Moreover, spies tend to be more diligent and attentive than their genuine counterparts; thus, Kanming City counterpart was actually more peaceful.
Therefore, he did not agree with Steward Li’s point about the Demon Sect causing chaos, because the Red Armored Guards and Heavenly Demons had already purged the Demon Sect’s influence nearby, and the most deeply hidden Grandmaster had already died at the hands of a Heavenly Demon.
At this time, the Demon Sect should still be licking its wounds, lacking the energy to stir up trouble again.
So, who was currently stirring up trouble?
Walking back to the inn, An Jing was still pondering this question.
But soon, he realized he didn’t need to think about it any longer.
Because he suddenly became aware of a wave of malice targeted specifically at him.
Complex, greedy, and rather than murderous intent, it was more like a craving for some precious object.
A kind of pure malice, viewing people as pigs and dogs, as mere goods.
The malevolence of a human butcher, a trafficker of humans.